DUBAI, 4th April, 2017 (WAM) -- Smart Dubai Office, the government entity charged with leading Dubais transformation to a smart city, has signed an MoU, with Smartmedical, a company pioneering Vocal Emotions technology.

The MoU includes research on the concept and design of Vocal Emotions technology. This technology measures types of emotions people are experiencing at a given moment by analysing the tonality and other properties of their voice. According to the agreement, the two parties will cooperate in enhancing happiness in Dubai in line with the Happiness Agenda launched by Smart Dubai Office in addition to other projects of common interest.

Dr. Aisha Butti bin Bishr, Director-General of Smart Dubai Office, emphasised that the agreement promotes commitment to peoples happiness at all levels. She said "After the success of implementing the Happiness Meters across the city, introducing Vocal Emotions technology in Dubai is part of the next phase of the Happiness Agendas measure portfolio. Using this technology, we now wish to have a deeper understanding of people emotions and sentiments, based on the results of which we will continue working with partners from the public and private sectors to further explore innovative ways of increasing happiness levels in the city, making Dubai the happiest city on Earth." "We started to develop Vocal Emotions technology after tsunami in Japan in 2011," said Nozumu Shibasaki, CEO and Founder of Smartmedical. "We wanted to help the families of the victims and their caregivers ease their pain and prevent any potential mental disorders that may result from this disaster. After three years of development, we launched Vocal Emotions in the market, which instantly became very popular due to its accuracy, high quality, and usability. It helped us to bring out a good mood among employees."Mr. Shibasaki added, "Japan has been a friend of the UAE for 40 years, and we are honoured to work with Smart Dubai to make the emirate the worlds happiest city. I would like to thank Index Holdings, our premier partner in the UAE, for implementing this mega-project."

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2017.